


Open Up

by RisuAlto



Series: Tai Lon's Story [2]
Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: Communication, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Insomnia, Language Barrier, Tai Lon is bad at remembering names, she's trying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2019-11-18
Packaged: 2021-02-12 16:36:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21479488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RisuAlto/pseuds/RisuAlto
Summary: The weight of another life on her ship was a lot, Tai Lon thought, but that didn't mean she'd care any less.
Relationships: Rekke & The Watcher (Pillars of Eternity)
Series: Tai Lon's Story [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1548022
Kudos: 8





	Open Up

**Author's Note:**

> This prompt was, “Looking unusually ruffled—messy hair, bags under their eyes.”

The past several weeks at sea had been relatively uneventful. However, this didn’t mean that the crew of the _Defiant_ wasn’t busy (it was hard to be idle, Tai Lon knew, when her average week as a Watcher involved at least one conference with some god and at least a few major diplomats). All of this wasn’t even considering the new stray that they had picked up—that stranger with a tongue spoken by no one else aboard who had been drifting, barely alive, in the wake of some shipwreck.

Tai Lon felt a little bad that she hadn’t had time to try and get a fuller story out of him, or really do anything except offer him food, water, and a place to earn his keep, but part of her also said that was enough for now. She had other things to worry about.

It didn’t stop her breath from catching when she caught the man in a moment alone looking like the Void warmed over. 

Nausea had settled in and never quite left Tai Lon alone after the number and sheer depth of visions she experienced while meeting Serafen’s old captain. So, despite the fact that the sky was barely awash with the firelit hues of twilight, she had left her companions to their own devices at the tavern and retreated as far away from kith as she could. The _Defiant_ had been blissfully quiet when she arrived. Its hull and deck creaked almost mournfully with the rhythm of the waves as though murmuring, _missed you…missed you…_

Wind breathed through Tai Lon’s hair and salt stung her pale eyes as she watched the southern horizon, stubbornly ignoring the sounds of Neketaka’s night life at her back. But as much as she wanted to stay above deck all night, her armor was feeling too heavy to be normal and the shivers in her body couldn’t just be from the dusk sea breeze. So Tai Lon slipped wordlessly down the stairs towards her cabin.

Then she heard it. Hidden under the ambient sounds of the ocean and her ship, someone was humming—

No, Tai Lon realized as she peered around the corner into the hold, someone was singing softly in a language she didn’t know. The stranger from the shipwreck was huddled down near the menagerie, face cast into shadow by the single hooded lantern on the floor. His bright orange hair fell in unkempt strings down his back and shoulders, which were bare in his undershirt. One of his hands was toying absently with Bubble the Cat’s fur, while the other was wrapped around his knees.

He hadn’t seen her. Tai Lon was too quiet for that. She could just slink into her quarters and the new guy would be none the wiser.

But—curse her bleeding heart—she didn’t. Instead, she stepped around the corner and started down the stairs, being sure to let them creak under her weight.

Abruptly, the man looked up, falling silent as he caught sight of her. “Captain,” he said a little too loudly. After a second, he began scrambling to his feet.

Tai Lon raised her hands in front of her. “No, no, uh, sit down,” she said, taking a seat on a crate nearby. The man remained standing, fidgeting awkwardly with the blue overshirt that had been folded in his lap as though he meant to put it on. “Or don’t, if you’re more comfortable standing. I don’t care.” Still, she received no answer, and Tai Lon leaned forward to study him.

The shadows that she had seen before on his face were hardly shadows at all. Rather, both eyes were underscored with deep, dark bruises that looked almost angry in their determination to drown this man. Tai Lon shifted her weight uncomfortably. 

A sigh let itself out of her lungs. Kith interaction was the last thing she wanted to do tonight but it wasn’t like she was just going to go sit in her room twenty meters away so she and this guy (she couldn’t even remember his name, _shit_) could suffer while also ignoring each other. “Are you okay?” she asked, hoping she didn’t sound as exhausted as she felt.

The man shook his head and Tai Lon expected him to elaborate, but instead, all he said was, “Sorry.”

“Sorry?” she echoed. “Why would you be—”

“’Captain,’” he said again, gesturing to Tai Lon. “’Watcher.’ Everyone says. But I—” he broke off with a huff and muttered something under his breath. With a hand wave between himself and Tai Lon, he sighed, “I do not know.”

The man said something else then, but it was in his own language. Somehow, Tai Lon could still feel the frustration pouring from his lips as he spoke, gesturing slightly in ways that meant nothing to her and eventually just closing his eyes and rocking backwards.

He still didn’t sit down. Even though Tai Lon had no faith in her ability to solve a problem she couldn’t understand, her chest fluttered uselessly with compassion. He wasn’t sleeping—that much was certain—so she stood suddenly and held up a finger. “Wait,” she said, and hurried off to the captain’s quarters.

She returned a minute later to see that the man (she was going to have to ask Edér what his name was tomorrow, somehow, without making an ass of herself) was leaning against the wall with his eyes closed. He looked up when she re-emerged as though surprised to see her.

The surprise only grew when he caught sight of the pillow in her hand and the woolen throw tossed over her arm, which Tai Lon wasted no time in offering forwards. “Here,” she said, before adding more quietly, “though it’s not much.”

He looked at the things in her arms for a moment before hesitantly reaching out to accept them.

Tai Lon wasn’t sure what to say, so she just nodded. He nodded back with a small smile and a muttered phrase that Tai Lon assumed meant something like _thank you_.

“You’re welcome,” she said. Then, with a quick glance towards her quarters, she added, “Good night,” and ducked back into the privacy of her own room.

She was going to have to figure him out one of these days, assuming he stayed on board. Whatever was keeping him up at night—be it stress, homesickness, or _gods_ forbid, something supernatural—it wasn’t a problem Tai Lon wanted to let fester. Sleepless nights were a pain in the ass, and she’d be damned before abandoning a member of her crew to them. Even if she had no idea what his name was.


End file.
